Comparative Literature &
Translation Studies
Christinawati
Introduction
Objectives of the topic
understanding the main concepts of contemporary comparative literature and applying insights
from this discipline to the field of translation studies.
Contents
Comparative literature is an interdisciplinary field in which literature is studied across national and
cultural boundaries. This course gives an introduction into the major developments and currents
in comparative literature studies, with special attention to the role of literary translations and of
translators as mediators between different cultures.
A number of basic concepts in the field will be discussed, such as: world literature, genetic vs.
typological relations, interliterary vs. intersemiotic, imagology, postcolonial approaches, and
cultural globalization.
The course also talks about the significance of literary translators in the reception of foreign
cultures (as well as in the emergence of literary canons, among others), the interaction between
the translator and other actors on the literary field, the relationship between translator’s poetics
and author’s poetics, and the phenomenon of the writer-translator.
Practically, reseachers will apply theoretical insights from comparative literature studies to the
cultural area they are specializing in.
Definition of comparative literature
• Comparative literature can be simply defined as the study of texts across cultures.
• It is said to be interdisciplinary.
• It is concerned with patterns of connection in literatures across both time and
space.
• It is also used to trace the relationships among aspects of life.
Definition
Benedecto Croce (Giffod 1995, 1) stated that comparative literature is a study about
a. exploration of change (vicissitude)
b. alternation
c. development
d. similarities and differences of two works or more
The comparison can be on
a. Idea/theme
b. Characterization, plot, setting, point of view
c. Style of language
d. Background/fields (cultural, social, historical, political, philosophical, etc.)
e. Interdisciplines
A discipline or a field of study ?
• It has been clearly debatable whether comparative literature is a discipline or is simply a
field of study (Rene Wellek)
• Bassnett frankly mentions that comparative literature is a field of study.
• According to Croce, it is neither a subject nor a separate discipline.
• From these point of view, comparative literature is a process since it is considered as a
process of exploring alterations and developments of literary ideas across literatures.
The aims of comparative literature
1. To look for the influence of one literary work to other fields and vice
versa
2. To decide which work is the original one in literariness
3. To remove impressions that a certain national literature is better than
other countries’
4. To look for cultural variety reflected in one work and another
5. To firm universality of universal beauty of work
6. To evaluate the quality and beauty of the works of the nations
Scope of comparative literature
There are 2 main scopes of Comparative Literature:
1. affinities, similarities, and or parallelism, as well as text variants with each other
2. the influence of one literary work to another or the influence of literature to other
fields and vice versa
The above two can be extended into:
3. comparison between the authors, the contemporary authors,
inter-generations, similar authors, etc.
4. comparison of literary works with other fields, such as architecture, traditional
medicine, superstition, etc.
5. theoretical comparative study to look at the history, theory of literature, and
literary criticism
Even though comparative literature has become a field of study, in its
implementation still arise various obstacles
In conducting comparative study of literature, researcher should pay
attention to
- the language and cultural context
- the origin of author’s citizenship
What is the comparatist’s job?
Simply speaking, a comparatist is normally expected
to
a. read the two texts to be compared.
b. highlight the similarities
c. find out the differences
d. make clear the idea of influence
Translating by comparing
Since the 1980s, translation as practice and as theory has become
central to Comparative Literature.
Traditionally, this was not the case: the discipline, founded largely in the
United States by post-war European émigrés, devoted itself almost
exclusively to the European languages and demanded that all texts be
read in the original language.
The canon has expanded to include many non-European literatures,
including various creole and hybrid literatures and oratures, scholars
have acknowledged the necessity of using translations in research as
well as in teaching.
Along with the practical turn to translation in Comparative Literature has
come, not surprisingly, the critical and theoretical assessment of translation
in the context of globalization, multiculturalism, cultural hybridity, post-
colonial theory, and an emphasis on interdisciplinarity.
With its interest in crossing the borders between languages, cultures, and
national literatures, Comparative Literature is implicitly committed to
performing and also to assessing theoretically the function and value of
“translation” in the widest sense of the term.
Translation is a fascinating and challenging field of study for both graduate
and undergraduate students.
Growing in theoretical, methodological, and cultural sophistication,
translation studies is emerging as a significant and useful aspect of
Comparative Literature and of the humanities in general.
Literary studies have always, explicitly or implicitly, presupposed a
certain notion of `literariness' with which it has been able to delimit its
domain, specify, and sanction its methodologies and approaches to its
subject.
This notion of `literariness' is crucial for the theoretical thinking about
literary translation.
The traditional discussion of the problems of literary
translation considers finding equivalents not just for lexis,
syntax or concepts, but also for features like style, genre,
figurative language, historical stylistic dimensions,
polyvalence, connotations as well as denotations, cultural
items and culture-specific concepts and values.
The choices made by the translators like the decision
whether to retain stylistic features of the source language
text or whether to retain the historical stylistic dimension
of the original become all the more important in the case
of literary translation.
In the case of translating poetry, it is vital for a
translator to decide whether the verse should be
translated into verse, or into free verse or into prose.
Most of the scholars and translators like Jakobson
(1991:151) believe that in the case of poetry though it
is "by definition impossible ...only creative
transposition is possible...".
